BY GEORGE FJELD
Duane “Skip” Jennings has lived and worked in Brandon for all of his 92 years. And he’s played golf here for 65 years! Skip was nicknamed at 4 or 5 years of age when he wore a sailor suit he loved that had a hat with “Skipper” printed on it. Locally educated in Brandon, he graduated from Brandon High School in 1948.
Golf for Skip started in 1954 at 24 years of age when 2 friends at Whelden Coal–Gilbert Casey and Danny Lovell–talked him into playing with them at the Middlebury golf course. He borrowed Danny’s wife’s clubs and afterward Jennings said, “I didn’t like it” and told his friends that he wasn’t interested in playing again. But after hitting a few chip shots each day after work for 3 or so weeks, he asked when they could play again. He joined Proctor-Pittsford Golf Club in 1955 and never looked back.
In 1957, Jennings was part of a group of 15-20 Brandon men interested in starting a golf club. Tom Whelan and Seeley Estabrook walked the site of the abandoned Brandon Country Club on Park Street Extension to see if they could resurrect the old course. The owner, from Bristol, had an idea that he could sell it to the school district as a site for a proposed Union High School. Though that didn’t end up occuring, they had to look elsewhere. After considering the fields at Barnes’ Flats, Bob Naylor and Herb Larock decided on the hay fields of Stewart Jones on the corner of Route 73 East and Town Farm Road. After Bob Naylor and Herb Larock worked out a purchase for $10,000, these local guys spent evenings and weekends contributing free labor to the development. A share of stock was gifted to each worker who completed 50 hours of labor. Other shares were sold for $50. A golfer from the Proctor-Pittsford course came and laid out the routing with stakes at tees and greens. Bert Baker hauled topsoil from his land on the “Creek Road” (now Champlain Street or Route 73 West), and dumped it at each stake. Herb Larock, a local logger, had 5 or 6 employees and 2 bulldozers. They spent mud season, when they couldn’t be logging, working on the course. Herb took his dozers into the Neshobe River and straightened it as well as reinforcing the banks with stone. Pairs of volunteers were given a green or tee to work on. Skip and Dean Lee were tasked with constructing the 7th green. After shoveling and raking all that dirt, when it came time to roll and pack the dirt smooth they had the idea to use Dean’s log truck instead of the hand hauled but lighter roller used on all the other tees and greens. That explains why decades of golfers found that green very hard and balls would bounce off of it too easily. The original 9 hole course was completed in 1958 and was expanded to 18 holes in 1996. The first golf course superintendent was Stan English and Stewart Jones did the mowing.
BAKER FARM DAIRY truck,1942. Skip on left with Charlie Capen and his son. Note the milk bottles in the back of the pickup.
Jennings is a lifelong Yankees fan which figures prominently in his marriage. In 1956, he purchased a marriage license to wed Elenita Hayes. Growing up a Red Sox fan, Nita became a Yankees fan after following Mickey Mantle, who won the Triple Crown in 1956. They hadn’t set a date but when Yankee Don Larson pitched a perfect game in the World Series in the afternoon of October 8th, they were so elated that he and Nita headed for the preacher’s house in Leicester. They found him at home and asked him to marry them, then and there. The preacher’s wife dried her hands after doing the dishes and witnessed the brief ceremony. They headed home separately to their parents’ houses, keeping the marriage quiet for a couple of weeks. Finally, after announcing their wedding, they moved into the house Skip had built on Park Street Extension.
Jennings was also an avid Middlebury Panther hockey fan, getting hooked on hockey after watching his first Middlebury game against Boston University, which was highlighted by a team-on-team (all 20 players from both teams) brawl. Attending with a friend, he thought “This could be very interesting.” He followed the Panthers for 60 years, only missing one home game in all that time.
SKIP JENNINGS AND his wife Nita were married for 66 years.
Photos provided
Jenning’s Dairy Products was started by Skip’s dad, George Jennings, in 1947 at the request of Proctor Creamery to fill a community need. Skip graduated from high school a year later and started working for the business. Soon, it was his show and he kept at it for 44 years, retiring in 1992 at age 62. Long term Brandon residents will remember him delivering milk to their doorstep or refrigerator 3 times a week. As the owner of Jennings’ Dairy, he was a one-man show. Starting at 4:30 in the morning, he would load the big white-and-green delivery truck with half-pint, pint, and quart glass bottles of milk from his refrigerated storage in Forestdale. Then off he’d go, stopping at nearly every house in town! Picking up the empty bottles and leaving the requested milk, cream, and eggs, he made his rounds.
Skip said, “People didn’t have fridges, some had iceboxes, so I delivered 3 days a week, either Monday, Wednesday, Friday or Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday. “Starting out, I charged 17 cents a quart for milk.” He continued “I knew where the key was hidden to a lot of houses and would go in and fill the refrigerator and lock the door on leaving.” Following his last drop-off of the day, he headed to Proctor Creamery between 10 and 11 a.m. to return empty bottles and pick up milk for the next day. He’d move the milk to the Forestdale fridge to keep it chilled overnight. This meant moving 4-5 tons of milk, bottles, and milk cases daily. “We figured out each milk case weighed 36 pounds and I’d lift and carry 2-3 at a time, I moved them all 4 times,” quipped Jennings.
Glass bottles ended with the change to waxed-paper cartons in the 1960’s. “Proctor Creamery didn’t want them (the bottles) and I took all those glass bottles to the dump. They’re probably still there.” Jennings’s workday ended around 1 p.m. and he headed home for lunch with his wife, Elenita. He didn’t take vacations, only a few 3-day weekends off each year, usually to attend a Yankees game. Son Kevin would fill in for him. He said he’d be on vacation once he reached 62 years old. Now his vacation has lasted 30 years! After Proctor Creamery closed, he bought and sold milk from Cabot Creamery and finally HP Hood. Afternoons all summer were spent at the golf club and in winter he built an ice rink in his yard and would skate for 1+ hours a day all winter.
He’s spent the last 64 years enjoying the fruits of his labors at Neshobe Golf Club. His best round was 67 (4 under par) on the original 9 hole course. He’s shot 73 (one over par) on the new 18 hole course. Jennings was never club champion but was runner up 3 times. He started “breaking his age” or shooting a lower score than his age in his seventies and has done so every year since. Skip has collected 8,000 golf balls from around the golf course but only has around 5,000 now! He’s anxiously awaiting the opening of the course this spring and you can be sure to see him on the first tee or practice green most days this summer.
